Author Jeanne Roppolo to present 'Traveling to China' in Tinley

Jeanne Roppolo, who presents â¿¿Traveling to Chinaâ¿ Dec. 28 at Tinley Park Public Library in Tinley Park, visited the Forbidden City and other sites in the country in 2014. (Photo courtesy of Jeanne Roppolo)

Jeanne Roppolo, who presents â¿¿Traveling to Chinaâ¿ Dec. 28 at Tinley Park Public Library in Tinley Park, visited the Forbidden City and other sites in the country in 2014. (Photo courtesy of Jeanne Roppolo)

Chitchat at a wedding became a life-changing moment for author Jeanne Roppolo, who left Chicago in 2011 and turned into quite the traveler.

The author of the "Grandma Goes to …" book series presents "Traveling to China" Dec. 28 at Tinley Park Public Library after doing a presentation there in November on Australia and New Zealand.

"I'm telling my stories, but the audience is asking questions and making comments. I'm learning from them. They're learning from me. We're just having a conversation. This is no lecture. It's very relaxed and interactive fun," said Roppolo via phone from her home on Chicago's North Side.

Roppolo plans to share tales about visiting the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, walking on the Great Wall and having lunch with a local family in a traditional neighborhood called a hutong.

"Beijing has 22 million people and I thought Chicago was crowded," said Roppolo, owner and publisher of JR Media Group, LLC.

"When you hear that you think, 'Oh, that's crowded,' but you don't realize that's how crowded it is. That was my first impression of China, and the air is very polluted. I try not to dwell on the negatives of a place. There's a lot of positives also."

Many positives resulted when her best friend from high school, CeCe Parker, invited Roppolo to attend her younger daughter Vicki's wedding. At the event, Roppolo chatted with Parker's older daughter, Cheryl, a scientist who had just returned from Antarctica.

"Our conversation literally lasted two minutes. She said there's a whole town down there, so she planted that idea in my head. We sat down to the wedding dinner and I made my big announcement: 'I'm going to Antarctica,' not knowing how difficult it was to get a job in Antarctica," said Roppolo.

"A fleeting moment in your life can change your life. Pay attention when you're having a conversation with someone. Be present for that conversation. That's how I got to Antarctica."

Published author Linda Collison, whom Roppolo met while the two were firefighters in Hawaii, spurred her to write "Grandma Goes to Antarctica: A Journey of Discovery," released in 2012.

That journey also has been the basis of an annual appearance Roppolo makes for teacher Jody Diehl at Arbury Hills School in Mokena.

"All my stories are 80 pages with half photographs. I had so much fun doing that that I wrote a second book, 'Grandma Goes to the South Pacific: A Voyage of Appreciation,' because this Chicago girl was invited to a private island in the remote South Pacific Ocean," said Roppolo of that 2012 title.

"Then a friend I had made in Antarctica was helping me with my website and all this because now I was on this new path. She mentioned that her family farm in Alaska is a checkpoint for the Jr. Iditarod."

That suggestion from Meghan Williams led to Roppolo's next two books, "Grandma Goes to the Alaskan Wilderness: An Excursion of Extremes" and "The Jr. Iditarod: Alaska's Little-Known Sled Dog Race: Coverage of the 2013 Competition," both released in 2013.

Since her fifth book, "Surreal: Reflections on Ice" was released in 2014, Roppolo has been working on "The Trans-Siberian Railway: A Road Scholar Adventure" and "Grandma Goes to China" for 2017 and "Grandma Goes to Mongolia" and "Grandma Goes to Siberia" for 2018.

She encourages people to travel to broaden their perspectives.

"You come to realize people are the same no matter what country you are in," said Roppolo.